Em has recently discovered her feet and she's very fond of them. When she gets cranky, taking her socks off is usually a good way to improve her mood in a hurry. She spends a lot of time trying to get her feet in her mouth but isn't usually too successful. She spent about half an hour tonight rolling around on her play mat grabbing her feet and slapping at her toys and was so very cute.

He was running through the house wearing nothing but a diaper and some pink sequined bunny ears and yelling, "I'm a nudie bunny! I'm a nudie bunny!" He'll be so embarrassed by this picture one day.

For the last week or two, Kenton has been pretending to have birthday parties and Christmas parties, and all of his pretend parties have cake. He's been talking about cake a lot. So we decided to make the boy some real cupcakes this morning. We usually do a lot of cooking on the weekends anyway, so we're used to the kitchen being wrecked. However, letting Kenton help added a whole new layer of mess to our usual kitchen chaos. He was so impatient while they baked, but managed to survive the nearly 20 minutes until they were done, and then ate one as soon as they were cool enough to touch. He didn't even want to wait for frosting.

Chillin' in the beanbag chair, watching tv. Obviously Kenton was a little more into the show than Em. She seems to be learning than when the camera comes out, it's time to turn up the cute.

My husband would like me to point out that those are my shoes in the corner of the picture, sitting in the living room where they do not belong. The 2 1/2 year old in the house puts his shoes where they belong as soon as he takes them off, but the 35 year old is proving to be a little more difficult to train to clean up after herself. ;-)

Kenton's puppy bath towel is not only incredibly cute, it also matches our bathroom decor really well. He's been really into letters for the last couple of weeks and can consistently identify all upper case letters and most of the lower case ones. He's also been working very hard to learn the sounds they make and has most of them down pat. The vowels are still a little confusing sometimes, but he's picked up so much so fast. It's so amazing and so exciting to watch him learn. Tonight we went out to eat at Zaxby's and they have lots of decorative items hanging on the walls, including lots of signs. Kenton was checking them out and said to me, "The letters are just everywhere!"

Temps here are in the 70's today, but it has been a little chilly over the last week. Em didn't mind the cooler weather, since it gave her a reason to wear her super-cute winter hat when she was heading out on the town.

As I've mentioned before, Kenton sleeps with a lot of junk in his bed. A couple of nights ago, he wanted to take a pile of train cars with him, too. So I said yes and off he went. I had to laugh a few hours later when I opened the door to check on him and saw this. The first thing I thought was, "...while visions of train cars danced in his head..."

Kenton took his bucket along the other day when he was out for a walk. He was quite choosy about what treasures he chose to pick up and put in his bucket. Only the finest rocks, sticks, leaves, and pinecones would do. And then, just a half-block from home, he unceremoniously dumped it all on the sidewalk without a word, and carried the empty bucket home. We don't try to understand toddler logic.

All bundled up to take a walk. Could she be any cuter?

Bathing beauty!

We're back! Did you miss us? (I know you did, Mom!) There's no good reason why we haven't posted for the last couple of weeks, just got lazy I guess. A few days ago Kenton, Edward and Emery went to the park and Kenton decided to climb this brick pillar. They've been to this park several times and Kenton has never felt the need to climb on it, but after watching his friend Parker climb up, he wanted to give it a shot. Unfortunately he seems to have inherited his parents' complete lack of athletic ability. He struggled a bit but did finally managed to get to the top and was quite proud of himself.

After watching during Emery's last doctor's visit a couple weeks ago, Kenton started picking up this plastic piece (it's supposed to hold the sunshade on the stroller but doesn't work so it's usually just lying in the floor somewhere) and using it to "take Emmy's temperature". He holds it like a stethoscope, but calls it taking a temperature. He also checks his own temp, as well as Lucy's when she'll sit still for it. So when he checks someone's temp he holds the plastic piece against them, acts like he's listening for a moment and then makes some announcement like, " It's two o'clock!" or "It's 94 degrees!", which is also what he yells every time we turn on the weather channel.

Kenton has a pile of stuffed animals who stay in his bed, a couple more he drags around during the day and then takes to bed with him, and then he usually wants to take some other toys or things to bed with him. For a while it was the trains, but lately it's been books. He likes the Thomas catalog that came with his train table, and last night he wanted to take this giant board book about using the potty. So we let him take all this stuff into his bed and when Edward went in to check on him, this is how he found him sleeping. If you look closely at his pillow, you can see the edge of the tin lantern he's been taking to bed with him, too. We don't know why, but if all the stuff helps him sleep better, we're all for it.

Em got some snazzy new pink sneakers today. When we put them on her, Kenton looked her over and said, "Now Emmy can walk!"

Miss Emery tried eating some baby food tonight for the first time. She sampled bananas, and it's hard to say if she liked it or not. She spit most of the food out and grabbed the spoon and stuffed it in her mouth, but she tries to grab everything that comes near her and stuff in her mouth these days. Kenton thought the whole experience was very funny, though. He laughed the whole time we were feeding her.

Temps here are back up in the 70s, so Edward has taken the kids out to a park the last couple of days. One of the parks in town recently added a paved walking track that has a couple of bridges that cross over a little lake. Kenton loves bridges, so this is pretty exciting stuff for him. Today he stopped and stuck his hand in an ant hill, but fortunately dad got to him and brushed the ants off before any harm was done.

I was looking back through our Christmas pictures this evening, and there were so many cute ones. Kenton was just overwhelmed by all his presents. He was incredibly excited when he saw the train set and table, and we had to persuade him to leave it and open the other presents. Then as he opened each new thing he would run it over to the train table and show it to the trains. In this picture he's showing them his bucket of sidewalk chalk.

Emery catching some zzzz's after our shopping expedition this afternoon. Thanks to Aunt Sandy for the cute outfit!

Baby, it's cold outside! But it's supposed to be getting much warmer over the weekend, with temps back up in the 60s. Luckily, Kenton got a couple of new sweatshirts and a new coat for Christmas, so he was well-prepared for the cold snap.

It's cold here in south Georgia today! Our low tonight is going to get down to 18 degrees, which is practically unheard of around here. It was a good night to stay in, eat some yummy soup, and take some pictures of our super-cute kiddos.

Emery has such wild hair. It's thin and short on the sides, but longer on top and it usually wants to stand straight up. Unless we really work at getting it to lay down, she looks like she has a mohawk. I think it's pretty cute--most people couldn't pull the mohawk off as well as she does.

Happy New Year!

Emery adores Kenton. She turns toward his voice whenever he talks, smiles and laughs when he pays attention to her, and just generally gets more excited about being around him than she does about me or her daddy. Tonight we put her in the bumbo seat and Kenton sat down beside her and held her hand and talked with her for a while, then "read" her a book. He had been running wild all day long, so it was very sweet to see him be (at least somewhat) still and interact with her.

It was such a busy, wonderful Christmas. Except for the stomach virus. That wasn't so wonderful, but I'm just trying to forget about it. These are a few of my favorite pictures from the last week. At Granny Cardin's house, Kenton decided that he wanted the giant stuffed Santa to sleep in the bed with him, along with the half-dozen train cars and assorted stuffed animals he normally sleeps with. He also took a small lighted Christmas tree to bed with him every night we were there, but I moved it to the bedside table before taking this picture.

When we opened gifts with the Chambers side of the family, Emery had been very fussy and grumpy all day thanks to the cold she has been battling for almost two weeks now. We took her sleeper off to change her into some cute Christmas clothes and her mood immediately improved. Since we're easy-going parents, we decided there was nothing wrong with leaving her in her diaper if that made her feel better, so that's why she's sporting a diaper and a Santa hat.

I love the picture of Emery and Edward laying in the floor reading. She had really been paying attention, alternately staring at his face and the picture in the book but she turned her head to look at me when I started snapping pictures. Isn't she adorable?

Our Christmas was so fun-filled and action-packed, we had to wear safety goggles. Hope yours was just as great.

Rudolph made a trip from the North Pole all the way to our library this morning! Emery was a little fussy when we took her picture. Rudolph did his best to make her smile, but she wasn't her usual happy self. Kenton met Tyler at the library and they hit it off right away. It took them a few minutes to warm up to Rudolph, but we eventually got some good pictures. Then they headed off to play in the Mother Goose house.

Thomasville's Victorian Christmas celebration is going on tonight and tomorrow. Our friend Trish joined Edward and me and the kiddos and we all went downtown to enjoy the festivities tonight. It was still warm enough that I was breaking a sweat when I carried Kenton around, so some of the more wintery activities, like marshmallow roasting, were not too popular. Of course, Kenton's favorite thing was the train ride. Trish and I rode with him while Edward spent some time with Emery and snapped a few pictures of us.

My favorite Kenton quote of the day: As we were driving by a Christmas light display, he looked at the nativity and said, "Hi baby Jesus! We're here to see your Christmas."

It has been freakishly warm here lately, even for south Georgia. I like warm weather but temps in the mid 80s two weeks before Christmas just doesn't seem right. Emery doesn't mind the weather, though, since it gave her a chance to bust out a cute little spring romper for a trip to the park with daddy and brother this afternoon.

Kenton loves to vacuum and you can bet neither of his parents is going to stop him from doing it. Edward has tried to convince him that scrubbing the bathtub is lots of fun too, but so far he hasn't had any luck.

Em was decked out in some of her fancy Christmas clothes over the weekend--when the temps were only in the low 70s.

Pictures from the light display at Dorothy Oven park in Tallahassee. You get to walk through the lights, which is just great. Much like he did last year, Kenton squealed and ran from display to display all night. We could just understand more of what he was saying this year. :-) Emery seemed to enjoy looking at the lights too, especially the ones that twinkled or blinked. I really need to read my new camera manual to figure out how to take better pictures in this kind of lighting situation, though.

Christmas wouldn't be complete without a trip to see Santa Cow at the Chick-Fil-A.

Despite what this picture would leave you to believe, Kenton gets very excited about Christmas decorations. We went to see the lights in the park in Tallahassee tonight and he was just crazy! I'll get the pictures uploaded tomorrow when I am not so tired.

Em got out her snazzy winter hat to go to the fesitval. Isn't she a cutie? She's such a good-natured little girl. She's really starting to smile and laugh now and we just can't get enough of that. As Kenton would say, we "lub her berry so much."

They had a couple of REALLY BIG trees at the Jingle Bell Festival. Kenton was impressed.

Edward and Thomas tried to convince Kenton to talk to Santa, but he wasn't having it. He didn't seem scared of Santa, just not interested.

I got my Christmas present early this year. My wonderful husband got up before the crack of dawn on the day after Thanksgiving and stood in line to get into the Office Depot and get me a digital camera they had on sale. I loved my old camera, but it didn't do very well with fast-moving subjects (like toddlers) or in mixed lighting. So far, the new one seems fabulous! I'm sure once I learn how to really use it, it will be even better.

On Saturday, we went to Valdosta to check out the Jingle Bell Festival. Kenton does love a good festival, and this one did not disappoint. There were bounce houses, fire trucks, horse-drawn carriage rides, funnel cakes, and lots and lots of Christmas decorations. Those are all high on Kenton's favorite things list. The weather was great and a good time was had by all.

Kenton gets into the holiday spirit by kicking back on the couch with a giant platic candy cane. He's very by all things Christmas and is thrilled when he sees a tree or other decorations out in a store or other public place. I'm afraid he's going to be a little sad come January when all the pretty decorations disappear.

We got out the Christmas decorations this morning and Kenton is very excited, to say the least. He started off his holiday decorating by covering Emery in ornaments. She's a pretty easy-going girl, so she didn't mind too much. I think she just enjoys the attention from her big brother.

Emery wasn't nearly as excited as Kenton about our trip to the mall.

We went to the mall today to check out their Christmas decorations and see Santa Claus. The decorations all had a train theme, and our little train-nut could not have been more excited. There were several trains in the huge Christmas tree in the food court, two trains that ran on tracks suspended from the ceiling into two wings of the mall, and even a train that you could ride! Kenton and Edward took a ride while Emery and I watched. Kenton wouldn't go see Santa, but he had a great time looking at all the trains and Christmas trees. It definitely was worth the trip.